Former S. Tapanuli school principal gets 3-year term for $6,400 graft

A former elementary school principal in South Tapanuli, North Sumatra, is serving a three-year jail term for his involvement in a Rp 58 million (US$6,400) corruption case.

Presiding judge Ahmad Guntur of the Medan Corruption Court said Tuesday that Ali Imran, 44, former principal of SDN 101730 Muara Upu, should also pay compensation of up to Rp 18 million, tribunnews.comreported.

Prosecutor Polin Siregar had earlier demanded that the court sentence the defendant to four-and-a-half years in jail.   

He said the defendant had received Rp 240 million of a special allocation fund (DAK) from the central government. The defendant said he spent the money to build two new classrooms and a toilet, but the school’s committee was not involved in the project.

The defendant offered an accountability report in December 2009, but the North Sumatra Finance and Development Control Agency found that the project had only cost about Rp 180 million, meaning the state suffered Rp 58 million in losses.